June 18, 2005

Younger fathers are much more apt to stay at home and take care of their home and children than their dads were. A new analysis from the Employment Policy Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based research group, found that just over 40 percent of married men, ages 18 to 25, with young children, reported that taking care of the home or family was their reason for being out of the labor force in 2004, compared to under one percent in 1984.

Overall, slightly more than 26 percent of married men who had young children who were out of the labor force were doing so to take care of their children. By way of comparison, more than 90 percent of married women who were not in the labor force reported home or family as their primary reason for not participating in the labor force.

The growth rate was 3.4 percent for Asian Americans, 1.7 percent for native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, 1.3 percent for blacks, 1 percent for Native Americans and

Alaska

natives, and 0.8 percent for whites.

That meant that at the beginning of July last year, the population was an estimated 294 million with the following racial and ethnic breakdown: 240 million whites, 39.2 million blacks, 14 million Asian Americans, 4.4 million Native Americans and Alaskans, and 980,000 native Hawaiians and other islanders.

June 05, 2005

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 45 million Americans did not have health insurance at any given time in the last year. More disturbingly, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that 20.6 million of these individuals were reported as working full-time.

Starting in 2012, nearly 10,000 Americans will turn 65 every day.Twenty percent of the population, 71 million people, will be 65 or older in 2030. The total number of Americans over age 65 and eligible for Medicare will double to over 70 million within this generation, while the population over age 85 will increase nearly five-fold, to almost 19 million, by mid-century.

These two trends, uninsured Americans and providing healthcare for an aging population, will forever affect the way employers can and will conduct business.It’s a problem that will only get worse before it gets worse.